When we read Krislyn Placide's piece on Lincoln's modernization of war technology in Popular Science, we were fascinated.
It's no secret that Lincoln went with General Grant to lead the war because the officer understood the numbers. Grant would flood the battlefield with troops under tragic conditions, knowing that his losses didn't matter. The President and Grant knew there would be more troops to fill the Union ranks, and the South didn't have that luxury. Every man counted.
What Placide points out is that the log cabin president was a famous tinkerer who nudged the Union into attaining 16,000 patents during his term, and that many of those were for weapon advancements. The South issued a paltry 266.
Lincoln understood the numbers as well, and the more Confederate troops he could kill per battle, the better chance he stood of saving the nation.
This model, now in the Smithsonian, shows the lift Lincoln received Patent No. 6469 for after a boat taking him home to Illinois from Washington got stuck. The device was never manufactured
In 1861, Lincoln tested breech-loading rifles in the White House lawn. Unlike muzzle-loaders, the breech-loaders didn't require soldiers to stand-up, opening themselves to fire, to re-load
Despite Col. James Wolfe Ripley, the Army Ordnance Chief, telling the president the breech-loaders couldn't be produced in time, Lincoln told him to order them
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